Brian O’Driscoll’s words (and tweets) stand for an awful lot, and so they should.
Ireland’s record caps holder and try-scorer achieved pretty much all he wanted to achieve in the game of rugby, except that elusive victory over the All Blacks.
“What a week to be in Chicago though,” he remarks.
O’Driscoll was over for eir/BT Sport commentary duty but was pulled six ways to Sunday with photo opportunities, media duties and offers to go for pints. It was the first game, since his June 2014 retirement, that he truly felt like a fan again.
“We should have beaten them before [Soldier Field]. We should have won at the Aviva in 2013 and arguably got a draw, at the very least, in Christchurch the year before.”
40-29 over the world champions. He tried to keep his composure on-air but needed an outlet for his sheer joy:
So proud! 🇮🇪
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) November 5, 2016
O’Driscoll’s tweet was prominent in headlines and Twitter reacts stories after Ireland’s superb win. When he gives his views on rugby events, people take notice.
That is perhaps why there was a clatter of stories, from ourselves included, when O’Driscoll called Nigel Owens forgetting the first name of Exeter captain Gareth Steenson ‘poor form’. That was in the news cycle for 48 hours and Owens even came out with an apology for his slip-up.
“That’s a storm in a teacup,” he says. “Nigel got back with an apology and I certainly don’t think he needed to do that… He didn’t want to call Gareth Steenson by his nickname ‘Steeno’. That’s fair enough. We all have our moments.” O’Driscoll continues:
“For there to be that much chat about that on social media does surprise you. It does make you realise you have to be careful with what you say.
“I’m two and a bit years into the punditry so I’m still learning how to say things. There are lots of ways to skin a cat. There have been other instances… live TV can be pretty unforgiving. You say something in the moment when, if you had the opportunity to look back at it, you might not say it the same way. That’s what it is and that’s what you do. You’ve got to get better at it or you’ll make the same errors.”
O’Driscoll often provides fascinating insights into the life and workings of rugby players, and teams, during his Friday night slots on Newstalk. On BT Sport, this season, viewers will have noted him offering stronger and stronger opinions.
With each passing year he gets further away from that players’ mentality and settles in as a pundit worth listening to. He says:
“There have definitely been moments where I felt more comfortable. The most difficult part for me is doing the comms – calling a game live. For the first couple of years, I definitely didn’t enjoy doing that because I didn’t think I was very good at it. I’m better now but I still feel I have a long way to go to improve and get more comfortable in what my voice is, how I say things and in my understanding.
“I do think I can see a lot of things that are going to happen in a game, and see it a couple of a hundreds of a second before a lot of people that are watching. That gives you and extra, tiny bit of time to call something.
“For instance, the Dylan Hartley incident at the weekend. It looks like a red and you want to say red but, just for a split second, if you say it’s red then the replay shows it’s not, you look like a fool. You have to balance and weight things up. Once we saw that replay we thought ‘red card’ so you have to go with your gut sometimes.”
In terms of Irish rugby’s resurgence, O’Driscoll is delighted with Munster’s winning run and hopes it continues in Leicester this weekend. He speaks glowingly of the young talents [Josh van der Flier, Joey Carbery, John Ryan, Garry Ringrose, and more] coming through. He says:
“From where we were last year with the World Cup, that disappointment and the knock-on effect of the provincial teams not doing well in the Champions Cup, and only having an okay Six Nations and finishing third. We’ve come a long way from the summer.
“A huge amount of the credit has to go to the provincial set-ups – the coaching tickets there and the players putting their hands up. At a national level, a huge amount of kudos needs to go to Andy Farrell. I think he has revolutionised our defence and really made it an attacking game that has won us a couple of huge games over the last six months – obviously South Africa and the southern hemisphere opposition in November.”
Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, O’Driscoll still feels the Champions Cup may end up back with the current holders – Saracens.
“Sarries seem to be the standard bearers for European rugby,” he says. “They dismantled Sale last weekend and still have a couple of guys to come back… They’re building a really good thing there and they look like the team to beat.”
When that final comes, O’Driscoll will call it as he sees it.
However, if an Irish team comes out on top… expect a tweet.
Tune in for round 4 of the European Rugby Champions Cup with Leicester v Munster, Saturday December 17 at 15:15, followed by Leinster v Northampton Saints at 19:45 and Sale v Saracens on Sunday, December 18 at 17:30, exclusively live on BT Sport 2.
